The Stars of Digital Software

Administrator

Posted on 6.01.2015

:: By Peter Prestipino, Editor-In-Chief

There is nothing accomplished on the
‘Net today that does not, in some way,
require software.

Every click made by Web users and digital workers alike
demands software systems that are powerful, reliable, intuitive
to use and capable of evolving alongside the enterprise.
Something very interesting is happening in the software
industry today, however, and as a Web professional you
have likely experienced it firsthand. Traditional content
management systems (those that have simply allowed ‘Net
professionals to edit and publish blogs) have turned into
solutions for “Web experience management” while shopping
carts have become “omnichannel, consumer-focused
retail engagement platforms.”

While there is an immense amount of innovation, of
course, there is an equal (if not greater) amount of consolidation
among (and collaboration occurring between) software
service companies. The result of this trend is changing the
way enterprises conduct business on the Web today and will
conduct themselves in the future. To make the most of the
digital universe though, it is as important as ever to focus on
the true software stars, those solutions that cater to the entire
lifecycle of the customer experience – from consuming information
to purchasing products or services (and every virtual
moment before and after). Companies today are realizing they
need to focus on making the most of their audience relationships
(extracting every possible iota of value) – and in some
cases are spending a great deal of resources to get there.

Software Spending

If you want some insights into how the Web (and business
in general) will evolve in the future, you need only look into
how brands are selling. Todays ‘Net merchants are personalizing
experiences, engaging with their audiences in multiple
ways (e.g. social ads and retargeted emails), and on various
devices (mobile, tablets, desktops and even wearables) – tactics
and technologies that were not even conceived of in the
not-so-distant past.

According to Forrester Research, annual spending on e-commerce
software by U.S. firms alone doubled from 2010
to 2014 and will nearly double again by 2019. In fact, by
2019, larger U.S. firms will spend well over $2 billion on e-commerce
platform software, up from $1.2 billion in 2014.

Those firms typically spend five times more on related implementation
and maintenance services, and that spending
will nearly double from $5.1 billion in 2014 to $9.8 billion
in 2019, according to the report, “U.S. Commerce Platform
Technology and Services Forecast.”

This shift to the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, in
which vendors host e-commerce software that clients’ access
via the Web, is occurring rapidly. While 42 percent
of U.S. companies studied in the Forrester report indicate
they license software (and maintain those solutions on
premise), that will inevitably increase as more companies
outsource the burden of support, scalability and upgrades.
SaaS accounted for 44 percent of e-commerce software
spending in 2013, but that number will rise to more than
66 percent by 2019 (Forrester). It’s the nature of digital
business today, but there’s way more to the story.

Where the Forrester report comes up short is that it only
addresses spending on “pure” e-commerce software – specifically commerce management (the solutions used to provide
and manage online stores) and order management (the systems
that manage various order processing scenarios through
to the point of fulfillment). What’s missing is all the related
software to help brands manage their Internet presence: site
search, personalization, product recommendations, mobile
commerce, etc. As you might imagine, a great deal is spent
on these on-demand software solutions too. The point is that software spending in the e-commerce space is likely far more
significant than even the best-guess estimates.

The marketing software industry, for example, is expected
to grow to over $32.4 billion by 2018 according to a report
released by the International Data Corporation (IDC). Content
production and management in particular will increase from
$3.8 billion to $4.7 billion over the four-year period. The report,
“Worldwide Marketing Software Forecast 2014 - 2018:
$20 Billion and Growing Fast,” sheds light on the changes in
the digital marketing realm and reveals what the future of ‘Net
business will look like for brands big and small - greater consolidation
and collaboration among the software industry.

Thanks to faster development cycles, and (as you
will soon see) expanding partner ecosystems, software
vendors can focus on delivering products that do more
for their customers. This is none more evident and undoubted
than in the realm of Internet marketing.

The Comprehensive Web Content Platform

In this month’s edition of Website Magazine, readers have access to a Top 50 list of the Web’s most
popular content management systems. While many will be familiar with the companies on the list,
there are a few notable absent digital players, which just happening to be upsetting the status quo of this important
software segment by offering up integrations that amount to powerful ecosystems for small business
operations.

Arguably the best example of this today is Wix. With 64 million current users (1.6 million
paid users, with 138,000 signing up in the past quarter), the Wix platform is poised to be a rather
disruptive force in the digital space. Find out how Wix moved beyond its Flash roots and evolved into
way more than just a website building platform at wsm.co/evolvewix.

The Future of Digital is Consolidated

IDC forecasts enterprises will spend $20.2 billion for marketing
software worldwide in 2014, growing to $32.4 billion
by 2018, making this one of the fastest-growing areas
of enterprise software.

IDC’s Strategic Framework for Marketing Technology
organizes 76 categories of marketing software into a single
view, dividing content, data and analytics, interaction, and
management and administration; and there are several interesting
takeaways from this report, which could prove
useful for brands when developing a road map to guide
their technology investment.

For example, the report suggests consolidating applications
into a single platform to improve efficiency and
effectiveness, working to integrate marketing technology
with existing enterprise infrastructure to gain deeper insights
into customers, partners and market opportunities,
and establishing inter-disciplinary teams and processes to
combat the silos specific solutions create. In essence, they
should seek out those processes and solutions from the
outset that can support an enterprise’s growth over the
long term. The good news for many is that much of this
consolidation is already occurring.

Get Social With Software

Discover several established and emerging software
solutions to accelerate your social media success at
wsm.co/smsoftware.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution NetSuite, for
example, recently announced the acquisition of Bronto Software,
a cloud-based marketing management solution that supports
email, mobile and social campaigns and whose customer
base includes such brands as Armani, Timex and Trek. What
does a mid-market ERP offering like NetSuite need with a solution
like Bronto? Companies, NetSuite included, are quickly
realizing that for them to thrive (attracting and retaining customers)
in the future will require that they provide a broad,
combined offering of services for those selling in-person and
on the Web. Since the selling process begins long before an
actual transaction occurs, communication with prospects is of
paramount importance. The acquisition of digital marketing
services like Bronto enables brands such as NetSuite to consolidate
their offerings, and go to market with functionality that
will more fully cater to the needs of users as they grow.

“Just as customers demand seamless cross-channel shopping
experiences, they increasingly expect companies to communicate
consistently through all of their digital experiences
– on site, at stores, in email or through social or mobile,”
said NetSuite’s CEO Zach Nelson. “By combining the two
companies’ offerings and technology, we can help merchants
deliver relevant and consistent digital commerce experiences
throughout the customer journey.”

It’s this sort of consolidation that is quickly reshaping the
digital landscape – a trend that likely won’t change moving forward.
If these solutions don’t merge with other supplementary
services (or acquire them) they will be forced to at least collaborate
– becoming stewards of their brands in the process.

Noteworthy Acquisitions

Numerous acquisitions have been made recently that illustrate
the software industry is consolidating. Discover some of the
most important at wsm.co/acqchange.

The New E-Commerce Experience is Collaborative

If one is going to sell on the Web today, an e-commerce system
that provides more than just a shopping cart is required.
Today’s Internet retailers need a platform they can count on
to grow right alongside their digital enterprise.

While there are hundreds of software solutions available for
Internet retailers, some of the leading e-commerce experiences
provided today are from retailers leveraging Magento. Now
under the virtual umbrella of eBay Enterprise, Magento powers
millions of websites for brands both large and small (check
out a few noteworthy brands using eBay Enterprise and Magento at
wsm.co/mebaylist). At its recent Imagine Commerce conference
in April 2015, eBay Enterprise rolled out the latest
release of the platform, offering a range of new features and
capabilities driven by its partner ecosystem, an important influence in Magento’s growth which should secure its future
among retailers on the Web.

The newly updated system offers automated product category
sorting capabilities (which makes merchandising faster
and highlights top-performing products), integrates with
Google Tag Manager (for new marketing campaigns, more
accurate data collection and access to advanced reporting and
analytics), and improves implementation quality and time to
market by speeding up the testing process. There is even a
new mobile software development kit, which will enable retailers
to create custom iOS applications to grow their sales,
and build brand affinity and loyalty.

While these are important additions to the software’s
core, what really makes Magento (and in turn eBay Enterprise)
so appealing to retailers is the relationships it has built
with other technology vendors. For example, the Magento
platform now integrates with Braintree to offer retailers enhanced
online payment capabilities. The new Braintree extension
will help retailers increase sales, reduce risk and deliver
a better customer experience by managing customer issues
like exchanges and errors over the phone without ever having
to request the customer’s credit card information a second
time. Merchants can also accept payments globally and
rely on state-of-the-art managed fraud protection via Kount,
which is offered through the extension. Platform additions of
this nature would have previously been too challenging for
Internet retailers to implement; a good reason to consider the
health of partner ecosystem in the software selection process.

Take a look at how the New Relic Software analytics platform
offers merchants visibility into the health and application
of their Magento hosting environment, and discover new
ways to improve your e-commerce site’s performance at
wsm.co/magentorx.

eBay Enterprise and Magento have grown (and rapidly)
thanks in great part to their commitment to expand their
ecosystem through collaborating with best-of-breed solutions
like New Relic and Braintree. This trend will undoubtedly
continue in the future and make Magento (and in turn eBay)
a service that will not be easy to ignore for retailers.

Everything Else Under the Digital Sun

Web content management, e-commerce systems, marketing
automation – these software solutions are the foundation
of digital success for every enterprise. There are many other
powerful platforms that satisfy specific needs within the modern
enterprise however, and while not as essential as those
aforementioned, there is most definitely a place for them in
the virtual realm and under the digital sun.

Social Acceleration

Whether social media is or is not producing a return on a
company’s investment of resources, it is difficult, if not impossible,
to ignore the channel. Fortunately, software solutions
abound to help today’s brands – both large and small – make
a greater impact for their digital business.

SocialRank, a Web-based software application that lets
users “identify, organize and manage” their followers on
Twitter, recently added Instagram to the social media websites
that it can track. What this means is that Instagram users
can discover details about their followers, such as who their
most popular and engaged followers are – and anyone who
has spent any time at all building a social following knows
precisely how important that can be. There’s a lot more to
social software than just tracking users on specific platforms,
including listening in as well as managing communication
(inbound and outbound) that is required in the channel.
To drive top-line business growth and key metrics associated
with engagement, today’s brands must invest in software
solutions that provide them with an opportunity to interact
with existing and prospective audiences.

Gamified SaaS

While some brands may struggle with getting users to engage
with their services and solutions, the savviest enterprisers are
turning to gamification in droves to enrich the user experience
and increase brand loyalty.

Get Satisfaction’s new gamification module, for example,
recognizes and rewards community members for actions (e.g.
answering a question, sharing a best practice, suggesting an
idea, or writing a product or service review). Companies will
also be able to track members’ contributions, award badges to
active individuals and even showcase contributors.

“Gamification is remarkably effective at motivating individuals
to take action in an online community,” said Rahul
Sachdev, CEO of Get Satisfaction. “It galvanizes everyone to
contribute more and offers a built-in multiplier effect for valuable
community engagement.”

Engagement for the Win

Check out three gamification software systems helping
brands of all sizes deepen engagement and drive
conversions on the ‘Net at wsm.co/wantgamify.

Brands including Blackbaud, Hootsuite, Extreme Networks,
SPS Commerce and Telstra are already seeing measurable
increases in community contributions by their members,
community managers and employees according to Get Satisfaction.
There are many other examples of gamification being
integrated into popular software to deepen engagement as well.
For example, Majestic.com, a privately owned search
engine and “link intelligence” system, recently incorporated
gamification into its online business offering to help its visitors
and users better understand and leverage its services.
By turning its system into a game, users essentially compete
against each other in a Massively Multiplayer Game (MMPG).

The technology, code named Majestic Awards, rewards users
the more they use the website. Visitors increase their level and
win online trophies for using or engaging with the Majestic
product and the brand in different ways.

Dixon Jones, marketing director of Majestic, said “Having
one of the richest indexes of the Web on the planet is
of little use until marketers understand its value. By turning
the learning component of Majestic into a game, we expect
some (if not all) users to quickly improve their use of our
data. This creates a win-win for everyone. It also makes it
fun for marketers to try Majestic.”

Mobile Experience

There might be more searches being conducted on mobile
devices than ever before (as well as an increase in mobile traffic to digital properties), but that does not mean that there has
been an increase in actual purchases on non-desktop devices.
Some uniquely powerful software applications are looking to
change that, helping e-commerce brands not only differentiate
their services, but also provide truly compelling experiences
for users in the mobile realm.

KAON Interactive, for example, recently announced
the availability of the latest version of its Application Delivery
Network (ADN) platform with new features for its
real-time interactive 3-D product experiences, which will
result in faster and more intuitive interactions on mobile.
The latest release uses a new algorithm for rendering 3-D
product models that accelerates frame rates up to three
times faster across every device. Users will be able
to engage in real-time with photo-realistic 3-D products,
have the ability to view integrated marketing messages
and explore product options, functions and features -
improving understanding of the value of products.

User Communication

Consumers are demanding more intimate and personalized
experiences with brands and as a result, live chat solutions are
becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Zendesk has unveiled a new live chat solution designed
specifically for large teams. The solution, dubbed Zopim Premium,
is built for organizations with larger teams that manage
live chat and a growing volume of real-time customer conversations.
Moreover, the solution provides new workforce management
tools so team leaders can better track the performance
and productivity of chat agents and multiple departments.

The Age of Chat

Real-time communication
has changed the way
brands interact with consumers. Discover five solutions
that help guide users to conversion and establish
loyalty at wsm.co/5livechat.

“Live chat is critical for building personal and engaging relationships
with customers online
and on mobile,” said Royston Tay,
Zendesk’s vice president and general
manager of chat. “Customers
today expect the kind of immediate
and effortless support that chat
delivers. As those demands grow
for organizations, they require
more advanced tools for managing
their teams and growth in chat
volume, so they can deliver exceptional
customer service at scale.”

The real-time monitoring solution
enables organizations to
monitor chat volume, visitor experience
and agent performance.
Other features include new integration and customization
options, 24/7 live chat support and the ability to restrict agent
logins by location for enhanced security.

Today’s CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions are a
necessity today for those enterprises that take the interactions
they have with consumers seriously. The leaders in the space
are certainly undertaking some serious innovation as well.
Marketing automation provider Act-On Software, for
example, recently unveiled new product capabilities dubbed
Act-On Anywhere and CRM Connector. The new features
extend the use of Act-On Marketing Automation for both
sales and marketing teams, as they enrich CRM data with
marketing intelligence and prospect behavior to better personalize
sales outreach.

CRM Connector, for instance, enables salespeople to see
marketing touchpoints and lead scores so they can know why
a lead has been qualified and assigned to them. In addition,
users can prioritize the top prospects and spend more time
selling, as well as access real-time behavior intelligence about
a prospect’s interests and activities.

2015 Master List of CRMs

The more a brand knows about its
existing and prospective customers
the better it will be at delivering
products, messages and optimal
experiences. See which CRM software
is top of mind with today’s ‘Net
professionals at wsm.co/mlcrms.

The other new feature, Act-On Anywhere, enables
salespeople to access detailed marketing engagement data
about any company or contact while using any browser-based
CRM system. Plus, users can interact with prospects
on LinkedIn by viewing any prior interaction they may
have already had with the prospect’s business. They can
also optimize interactions on Gmail by using Act-On’s prebuilt
email templates with the mail app, as well as track
email opens and clicks of any email sent.

The Expanding Software Universe

It is a great time to be a Web professional. There are amazing
software solutions available to help enterprises do more
(and with less). As software vendors continue to consolidate
and collaborate, digital businesses and their consumers
stand to benefit the most.